Session 41

This session saw our first real deviation from the adventure as written. The second underwater encounter never occured, as the first went badly for the players, and they had really done nothing to deserve a TPK!

Then, on their journey home, I threw a level 12 solo creature at them on top of the monsters summoned by Siljhen (for reasons of my own which I shan't reveal just now lest it spoil the surprise).

Anyway, here's how the session went:

Session 41

The unit secured Il Dracon de Mer with the help of the Impossible and the detachment of marines.

While Uru descended to scout out the dig site, Krauss convinced Rutger Smith to release him for the duration of the dive.

When Uru returned he reported no sign of any sharks, but it was clear he was in no fit state to take part in the next assault: he was twitching and nervous and when challenged, he almost collapsed. Malthusius diagnosed an overdose of fey pepper.

Without Uru, the unit descended to the sea floor and slowly approached the dig site, bathed in the eerie glow of a magical beacon and waves of Mavisha energy.

As they neared the edge of a pit dug in the sea bed, they were attacked from all sides: hidden foes (the druid Krantos and his pet) performed a pincer movement with the rest of the specialists in the pit: Finona Duvall and her dwarven bodyguards, and two warlocks.

Thanks to a lack of tactical acumen, the fight turned against the unit at first. Only when they finally got the idea to drop Krantos did the situation become managable, as his shark and octopus companions swam away.

Eventually, when only Finona was left standing she angrily surrendered and watched in horror as the unit took pains to seal the open portal, carefully avoiding the release of any watery monsters. Krauss also buried the portal under a weight of rock and sand.

Returning to the Il Dracon de Mer, they persuaded a majority of the Crisillyiri crew to help them sail back to Flint. Finona and her team were placed in the brig, while recalcitrant crew members were placed in the brig of the Dagger.

Rutger Smith congratulated the unit on a successful mission and set sail for Flint. The unit followed in their slower ship, alongside the Dagger, having convinced the goblin archaeologist Pablo to keep the location of the dig site secret.

Xambria proposed a celebratory meal on board Il Dracon (for the confines of the Dagger were quite shabby and Captain Glassmaker a drunken lout). She spent the evening in rapt conversation with Matunaaga and Malthusius.

Malthusius escorted Xambria back to her ship, following a stroll on deck, which reawakened urges he hadn't felt in five-hundred years.

Once Xambria was gone, the unit turned to the business of interrogating Finona.

Leon used a terrifying technique the others had not seen before, a method he once had learned from General Dax, he said.

Finona admitted visiting other sites on behalf of Caius Bergeron, once in the company of Rock Rackus (who kept hitting on her).

Reluctantly, she said she believed that Bergeron was part of a wider organisation - one he intended to introduce her to more fully on his Winter train ride from Belmont to Vendricce.

Malthusius noticed her fingering a ring on her finger as she said this, and took it for inspection: an inscription within read Original Brave Ideas. It had been given to her by Caius to symbolise her affiliation with the organisation he was a part of.

A shuddering thud interrupted their conversation, and screams from on deck sent the unit scrambling upwards.

There they found a host of aquatic monsters - slime walkers and hydra snatchers - besetting the mercenaries and marines.

They could also see that the Dagger was aflame, and listing.

A hard fight followed, during which Malthusius sensed the approach of something very large indeed.

Before they had a chance to draw breath a truly enormous sea creature erupted from the deep, ripping into the rigging with five huge jaws at the end of long, snaking necks.

When they tried to draw its attention away from destroying the ship, the unit found its attacks to be very dangerous indeed: one by one they were dropped, until the situation began to look very grave indeed. The Il Dracon was listing now too, its rigging was in tatters, and many of the crew were dead or lost overboard.

What better moment for a dwarf in search of a good ending? Throwing down his trusty floating shield, and drawing his mordenkrad, Rumdoom launched himself at the ferocious beast. As he charged it clipped him with its jaws, and as his blood spattered the deck, he cried out and unleashed the ferocious power of the Icy End of the World. Throwing himself into the body of the monster, he caused everything, saltwater, spray, and seamonster alike to freeze into an enormous block of ice. Its necks still writhing, the creature tried to cling on to the ship, but the ship was no longer there: it was all turned to dust.

With a great crash of water, the beast fell back into the sea, and the iceblock shattered. The beast continued to writhe as it struggled to survive whatever terrible wound the insane dwarf had inflicted, but momentarily the struggling ceased and the monster sank beneath the waves.

Matunaaga dived into the sea and followed the sinking corpse as far as his lungs would allow, but was forced to head for the surface empty-handed.

Rumdoom was gone.

Korrigan took charge and gave orders for a message to be sent to the Impossible. Meanwhile, some of the unit went to explore the Dagger. Her crew was dead, and all occupants accounted for save one: Xambria. They found evidence that a linked portal ritual had been performed in her cabin.

Back on Il Dracon, more bad news: Finona Duvall and her specialists were dead too - their jaws dislocated and their brains eaten! No sign of entry to the brig was evident.

With half a crew, the ship was forced to limp for the shore of Ber.

Rumdoom's player invoked a benny - a houserule that enables players to make pretty major changes to the campaign (or just reroll a dice... yawn) in return for good roleplaying.

With the terrifying sea monster ripping into the ship, and three of his comrades already down, he asked if he could spent a benny to make this the 'good ending that Rumdoom had been waiting for.

I asked him to describe what he meant and he summed it up by saying that he wanted to invoke the 'Icy End of the World' power and make it 'go nuclear'. In other words sacrifice himself for the rest of the party and take out the sea monster in the process.

Rumdoom is one of the most popular characters in the game so the others understandably tried to persuade him to give it another round, which he duly did. Another ally went down.

I asked him to repeat his request and reminded him of our other house rule: no resurrection in heroic tier. I then agreed to his request and described how Rumdoom took out the sea monster with his ferocious charge.

The final fifteen minutes or so were quite subdued. Even the discovery of Xambia's 'treachery' and the murdered specialists was overshadowed by Rumdoom's demise.

This coming Saturday - for my 'stag do' - we're playing a twelve hour marathon session at my house which may well take us to the end of the adventure (or at the very least to just before the last encounter).

We'll have to wait and see how the unit fares against Sijhen and the Obscurati Kill Squad without their stalwart defender...

Cool death. I am curious what prompted the sea monster of doom (or was it a despair squid?). A tie in to other aquatic plots?

The monstrous hydra/squid-type thing was indeed a tie-in to other plots: Leon has a jade idol that originally belonged to the Deep Ones. When the idol enters the water, they know where it is - which is how they were able to follow the spymaster Silas Fennac (if you remember that purloined subplot).

The Deep Ones (aboleth) are ancient and implacable foes of the gidim. My idea is that, having been drawn to the dig site by the presence of the idol, they then sensed the presence of Sijhen aboard the players' ship and summoned the monstrous sea creature to take him out.

Originally Posted by RangerWickett

So do you guys play "Dark Dungeons"-style, or will Rumdoom's player be returning with a new character?

In the short term I'm not sure - Rumdoom's player will be absent on and off, and from September he will be gone for one or two months. Once he returns full time, we already have a solution up our sleeves.

Session 42

This session was an extra-long ten hour Saturday game to celebrate my forthcoming nuptials (next Saturday) in a uber-geeky version of a stag do. (Which also meant that the wives, girlfriends and partners of my players would allow them to play for that long, and on a Saturday too. Funny how that works, isn't it?)

I had been timing our sessions very carefully in the run-up to this 'stag session' to ensure that the RHC HQ encounter fell on this game, figuring it would be great to blast through it in one go, rather than split it over multiple three-hour sessions midweek.

But things never go according to plan do they? So despite skipping the Seal of Mavisha we were still in Ber, and needed to get the players back to Flint, run the audit encounter with Saxby, carry out some investigations and play through the Gala of the Ancients first.

I was also very concerned to make it appear that the Gala of the Ancients was the final fight. To that end, I souped it up, 'accidentally' referred to it as the last encounter, and made sure that the players felt that it was their actions which had helped Xambria take control of her body.

(Knowing the RHC HQ fights would be even more deadly once the players had blown their dailies, I made some changes there too, more of which later.)

Anyway, here's how things went:

Session 42

The unit hadn't a moment to mourn Rumdoom's passing: the dwarf had bought them time, and they dared not squander it.

Leaving the marines to hold Il Dracon de Mer they hitched a lift on The Impossible to Seobriga, where they arranged teleportation to Flint, paid for by salvage on Il Dracon.

Back in Flint, a message from Stover Delft took them straight to the Museum where Hans Weber was preparing for the opening night of the Gala of the Ancients.

Weber showed them a scribbled letter from Xambria, written in a rare lucid moment, claiming to be possessed by some thoughtform entity - a Gidim named Sijhen that had escpaed from the Ziggurat of Apet. She also claimed that Sijhen wanted to steal the golden Artifects of the Ancients the unit had recovered from Kaja Stewart (and which were now held under high security in Central Flint, only to be displayed on the opening night of the Gala). The note also mentioned a conspiracy called the Obscurati which the Gidim was very interested in.

Weber asked the unit to provide security at the Gala.

Delft then ordered the unit to a meeting with an impatient Lady Margaret Saxby, who had already sent a small contingent of officers to ensure their prompt arrival.

An imperious Saxby took the unit through the audit conducted by Viscount Price-Hill, starting with their various misdemeanours, highlighting their association with criminal elements. She confiscated the jade idol from Leon (but made no mention of the messenger wind).

When Lord Viscount Nigel Price-Hill arrived he was altogether more positive, commended the unit in large part and looked forward to their next meeting at the Peace Conference next spring.

Price-Hill singled out Leon and took him aside to question him about rumours that he was linked to the Vekeshi Mystics. Leon managed to convince him that this was a cover story to bring the unit closer to Gale.

Rumdoom's funeral ceremony switched venue at the last minute when Khaled Valchek learned that the unit had held the jade idol all along. At the ceremony the unit learned about the hit on Lorcan Kell that had been arranged for the same night as the Gala opening. Associates of the Family and Black Star Mining had collaborated to draw Kell out of hiding.

Uru also overheard Khoomrung talking sadly about Rumdoom, and how he had never known what really happened to his sweetheart Moraga. While Rumdoom was away at war, Valchek had made his move, for he had always coveted the fair dwarf maiden. When Rumdoom returned, and she chose him over Valchek, Valchek became enraged. He invited Moraga to his home and forced himself upon her. Moraga feared what would happen if she told Rumdoom, and over the next few months, her spirit broken, she pined away and died. Rumdoom had never known the truth of why she sickened so, and always believed that the child she carried when she died was his...

Reports of more strange murders - victims of some brain-eating serial killer (...) - began to filter into the headquarters. Investigating, the unit followed multiple planar trails, all fo which headed for the Stanfield Canal. They spent many days following these trails, and also stumbled upon a warehouse (rented by Caius Bergeron some weeks ago) where several guards had been murdered and the contents of a crate had been stolen. Convinced this was the apet seal, the unit concentrated their efforts on the river trail until, the day before the Gala, they came upon a barge piloted by a red-haired woman. They stormed aboard, only to find a middle-aged seamstress who had plied the canal these past five years. Hidden aboard her vessel was an amber jar of ichor collecetd from the thoughtform creatures, deliberately placed as a decoy.

Thwarted, they turned their attention to the Gala, training the museum staff to herd the crowds to safety if Xambria showed up. (Many of their other suggestions were turned down by Weber and Delft.)

On the night, they saw several faces they knew in the crowd: Geoff Masarde, designer of the Coaltongue, attended in the company of Nathn Jierre, while Prof. Lynn Kindleton was also there with Doctor Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, who enqured after Leon's arm. Rock Rackus was there too, in the company of local school children, having set up a new foundation, inspired by the teachings of the Grumbler (which he had been reading having encountered Krauss). He was very enthusiastic to see the unit, but kept swearing loudly in front of the kids.

Xambria/Sijhen duly attacked after about an hour - crashing in through the skylight on a silk rope. She made a short speech, and then a beeline for the artifacts. Thoughform creatures - worm maws and impanters - followed in her wake.

It was obvious that Xambria's words and actions were now entirely those of the entity possessing her. Malthusius, having already formed a strong bond with the young academic, used personal details he had learned during their conversations on the deck of the Impossible to reach Xambria's submerged consciousness.

Aided by Rock Rackus, the rest of the unit set about defending the bystanders. Herding them outside turned out to be a bad idea as there were more implanters in the grounds.

A crazed waiter dropped his tray of canapes and with a cry of 'For the Old Stag and the Fey' plunged a dagger into Rackus' flank. Rackus gave a groan and pistol-whipped the youth, whereupon the AG of Flint cried out in dismay and stepped forward to defend his errant son. The youth - one Tyler Starke - had to be restrained by museum guards, all the while casting curses and imprecations at both Rackus and Leon (whose 'failure to act' he was seeking to make up for). Leon was concerned that reports of this might reach Viscount Price-Hill...

All of a sudden, Xambria was able to take control of herself. Aided by Malthusius, she submitted herself for arrest, and in fact turned her own mind against the thoughtforms.

Leaving junior officers to restore order and aid the injured, the unit spirited Xambria directly to the anti-magic cells of RHC HQ.

There Xambrias was able to tell the unit a great deal about Sijhen's desires and goals including the disturbing fact that Lady Saxby herself was somehow connected to Macbannin and now held something that the Gidim desperately needed in order to peform a ritual that would allow it to return home and perhaps return with an invasion force as it had first intended thousands of years ago..

It was at that moment that Xambria realised that what Sijhen wanted was right here in RHC HQ. It had intended to be captured and the whole assault on the Gala was nothing but a ruse. No sooner had she revealed this than waves of Apet energy from some underground source flooded the headquarters. Time stopped and movement stopped and reality became transparent. The stunned unit could only watch in horror as Sijhen regained control of Xambria and caused her to clamber upwards out of her cell, making directly for the upper floors and the office of Lady Saxby.

At the same time they saw a squad of black-clad murderers clambering in through an iron ring on the opposite side of the prison, and a multitude of thoughform creatures flying into the building through the walls.

As they regained control of themselves, reality began to pulse from solid normality to translucent and back again. The raced upwards, as they saw 'Xambria' confront Saxby and force her to open a safe beneath her desk.

On the way they dealt with crawling spikers and coloured orbs, before running into an Obscurati Kill Squad, formed in part by minions of their newest ally Lorcan Kell. (How they had come to be here, and gain access to the prison remained something of a mystery, but no doubt went some way to explain how the Obscurati were able to silence Kaja Stewart.)

The Kill Squad were dealt with, at some cost to the unit, and they made it to the second floor, rescuing Stover Delft from a Worm Maw.

Meanwhile, Xambria/Sijhen had what it wanted and turned invisible, but the unit headed for Saxby anyway, taking out more thoughtforms as they went.

Delft's presence rallied the RHC staffers on the lower floors and they began a fightback against the alien invaders.

Saxby had gathered the new Macbannin unit to her: Carlao, Serena and Dima. She had clearly filled their heads with lies, as Serena attacked Uru the moment he turned the corner. They ended up in a pitched battle with their boss and their colleagues. Saxby was a dangerous foe - her high office granting her the power of Risur itself.

As the unit dropped Carlao and Serena, Saxby fled. Korrigan was able to convince Dima to give them the benefit of the doubt, and help them bring Saxby down.

The sight of seven of his trusted officers in hot pursuit of Lady Saxby convinced Delft to join in and he prevented her from fleeing with a well-aimed pistol shot. Thanks to that, the unit were able to catch up with her, and a battle of attrition began in the rain-soaked gardens of the headquarters.

The unit were keen to bring down Saxby alive, but a deadly shot from Uru caught her in the throat and she was killed instantly.

While the rest of the thoughtforms were mopped up by Delft and the junior officers, the unit pinpointed the source of the Apet energy: a half-built subrail tunnel some fifty feet beneath the HQ.

Unable to tackle Sijhen in their current state, they took a badly needed rest.

And so Sijhen at the Threshold awaits to be played out next session.

We houseruled a long time ago that even if players are trying to bring suspects in alive, if they score a critical on the blow that takes the enemy over 0hp, or deal enough damage to take them to bloodied in that final blow, then they would be accidentally killed. Funnily enough it happens with amusing regularity, and always at a suitably dramatic moment. Here, it happened in the attempt to stop Saxby from fleeing, although good old Malthusius was able to save the day with his spirit medium power.

This RHC HQ encounter (or should I say encounters) was fantastic. The players were totally blindsided when Sijhen sprang his trap, but were even more blown away by the highly original and cinematic nature of the encounter design.

The only major changes I made to the encounter was hand-waving the thoughform sections once Delft was rescued. Before that the players had already fought through implanters, eyes of madness and a worm maw, so further run-ins were unnecessary (and made up for the souped up Gala of the Ancients).

For anyone who was interested, I simply gave Xambria her full alotment of HP before 'fighting back', and added a second worm maw (which really scared the players - they refer to those things as a 'tooth anus' and don't like the idea of being 'shat out' by them...)

We've already run the final encounter as I write this and it was suitably melodramatic, as you will see from my next report.

Session 43

Gambling that Sijhen could not complete a complex ritual in such a short space of time, the unit rested up before descending.

Matunaaga slumped to the ground. Running on adrenalin, he had not noticed a poisoned Kill Squad shuriken embedded in his side. Dima set to work trying to stem the flow of blood and delay the poison.

While the unt rested up, Malthusius summoned the spirit of Lady Saxby and learned that the item it had taken was an ancient golden star map. Saxby had never heard of the Obscurati and always considered herself to be supporting a secret project directed from the very highest level - that is until Macbannin was arrested and killed himself. Since then she had been desperately tried to cover her tracks and find out what was going on.

At last, the unit was ready - or as ready as they would ever be. But Matunaaga was in no state to go on, leaving just Korrigan, Uru, Leon, Malthusius and Krauss to face the alien entity.

Waiting for reality to become transparent once again, they quickly descended to the rail tracks some fifty feet away from the point at the end of the tunnel where Xambria/Sijhen was crouched.

Uru stole closer: the golden seal of Apet was placed against the far wall, surrounded by eight magical lamps. Xambria/Sijhen had the star map in front of her and just as the rest of the unit closed, the ritual locked on to the destination Xambria/Sijhen had been searching for. Malthusius could feel the energy change, and reality ceased to fluctuate.

Uru opened combat with a misplaced shot. Xambria/Sijhen turned and faced the party, splitting in two and dominating Uru. She/it taunted the party, but as the fight went their way, began to plead to be allowed to flee. Malthusius sensed at once that the creature was lying.

Thinkinh it might help, Uru smashed one of the magical lamps. Leon realised that this was a bad idea, and now they would be unable to take control of the ritual, only try to derail it safely.

Xambria was felled, whereupon Sijhen crawled out of her body in ethereal form, and resumed its attacks on the unit.

At that moment, using a trick she had picked up during her possession, Xambria's consciousness fled from her lifeless corpse, and sought refuge within Malthusius. The old deva acquiesced, and the young archaeologist took up residence within his mind.

As the fight went against Sijhen, the creature took a gamble: figuring it could turn the fight round, it rent the seal from the wall telekinetically, ending the ritual in an enormous blast of energy, planning to restart it once the unit was dealt with.

All of the unit was bowled over the blast, and as they picked themselves, they watched in horror as an enormous tentacled thoughform slug crawled through the closing portal.

Krauss' mind, already unhinged by distant madness, was for a moment lost entirely. This Thing from Beyond seemed to him to herald the end of the world. After a moment, he regained his senses and charged forward, leading the attack.

When it was badly wounded the Thing began to unleash horrifying prismatic screams, causing the entire party to drop to their knees in agony.

At that moment it reached out with its tentacles and grabbed Krauss, who was swallowed whole, kicking and screaming all the while.

The Thing then merged with Sijhen's consciousness and went on to swallow both Uru and Korrigan.

At that moment, Leon's arm - which had been severed, reattached, and then possessed by the spirit of the Voice of Rot - caused great necrotic energies to pour forth through his fey curse, tearing immense thoughtform into tatters.

The bodies of its three victims dropped to the ground.

Korrigan and Uru eventually staggered to their feet, but Krauss remained motionless. He was dead - slain by the alien monster.

Their task complete, the unit began the long, slow walk back down the subrail tunnel, carrying their fallen comrade with them.

So another character bit the dust - two in the space of three sessions! Although this was the first death caused by the dice.

During a break I offered Krauss' player a couple of 'outs', but he is very old school and decided to leave Krauss where he lay. I have to admit that I was sad to see him go, as he was played to a tee and a very useful build for the party to boot.

His death reminded me very much of Quint in jaws, eaten alive, still fighting.

Session 44

This session was our last before a long summer recess. I was about to get married, go on honeymoon, celebrate my 40th birthday, AND leave the job I have held for 9 years. Two characters had just died, one player would not be returning to the group for some time, as his wife was due in mid-September, and we had just come to the end of adventure #3 .

Time to come up with something a little different.

On the backburner since the buffer adventure between #2 and #3 was the matter of growing hostilities between the Kell Guild and Black Star Mining. (Black Star Mining was added to the campaign as part of Rumdoom's developing background story and his search for the Stone of Not.)

The players had managed to recover a spy and a journal from Black Star Mining at the behest of 'the Deep Ones', and had also succeeded in convincing Khaled Valchek - owner of the Mining company - that the Kell Guild was responsible.

As adventure #3 progressed, the unit used their influence to ratchet up tensions, aided by Lorcan Kell's violent response to Valchek's arrogant demands. They also arranged for Valchek's agents to meet with agents of Morgan Cippiano, who was equally keen to take out Kell.

And so (inspired by the account of Sound of Azure on these boards) we began to arrange a hit on Kell, with the original plan that it should be led by Rumdoom, but with the rest of the group playing cameo characters.

Rumdoom was gone, so now the entire hit squad was made up of cameos (including Azure Lord Blackthorn who had joined forces with Black Star Mining during the last buffer).

This session was a simple Capture the Flag scenario, giving the players a chance to familiarize themselves with their new characters before the hit - which would be our first session after the break.

I include reference to this session only for completeness' sake (though it featured some hilarious roleplaying moments despite being 100% combat).

In my next post I'll include a character roster to the report on session 45 makes more sense.

'Screw-loose' - a local Family bravado with anger management issues. No matter what Fidalgo thinks, Louis outranks him and intends to throw his weight around.

Gregor - a simple, honorable goliath paladin, sent on the mission to atone for a past sin. (He had accidentally cracked the skull of a man in a brawl and was asked to help rid the town of Lorcan Kell by a clergy bishop.)

These four made up the Family side of things. And from Black Star Mining:

Kurt Hawkins - Black Star Mining's 'inside man'. A ruthless sniper and shameless turncoat. He should be riding with Kell during the hit.

Azure Lord Blackthorn - hotheaded sprite, and the real leader of the group, at least from his own perspective. He is a Sidhe Lord, after all...

Khoomrung Morkanstall - politician and ally of Khaled Vhalchek. Unwilling participant in (and, form his own point of view, mere observer of) the hit on Lorcan Kell. The group's healer.

Pak Cha - thri-kreen mercenary from the deserts south of Ber. His tribe have come into contact with Valchek's southern explorations, and have proved to be readily exploited.

Creating this group gave the players a chance to put together builds they had been hankering to use. The 'capture the flag' session was great, and saw all kinds of tensions arise between the wannabe leaders (Fidalgo, Screwloose and Blackthorn) and much amusement at the simple honesty of the poor paladin, Gregor.

Of course, things never go according to plan, and when three players couldn't make it to our next session, I was forced to improvise in ways that did not work out in their favour...